Would you, thro' all your days, difpenfe
The joys of reason, and of sense?
Or give to life the most you can,
Let social virtue shape the plan.
For does not to the virtuous deed
A train of pleasing sweets succeed?
Or, like the sweets of wild defire,
Did focial pleasures ever tire?
Yet midft the groupe be fome preferr'd,
Be fome abhorr'd-for DAMON err'd:
And fuch there are-of fair address-
As 'twere unfocial to carefs.
O learn by reason's equal rule
To fhun the praise of knave, or fool!
Then, tho' you deem it better still
To gain fome rustic 'fquire's good will;
And fouls, however mean or vile,
Like features, brighten by a smile;
Yet reafon holds it for a crime,
The trivial breast shou'd share thy time:
And virtue, with reluctant eyes,
Beholds this human facrifice!
Thro' deep referve, and air erect,
Mistaken DAMON won refpect;
But cou'd the specious homage pass,
With any creature, but an ass?
If conscious, they who fear'd the skin,
Wou'd fcorn the sluggish brute within.
What awe-ftruck flaves the tow'rs enclose,
Where Perfian monarchs eat, and doze?
What proftrate rev'rence all agree,
To pay a prince they never fee!
Mere vaffals of a royal throne!
The fophi's virtues must be fhewn,
To make the reverence his own.
As for THALIA-wouldft thou make her
Thy bride without a portion ?-take her.
She will with duteous care attend,
And all thy penfive hours befriend;
Will fwell thy joys, will fhare thy pain;
With thee rejoice, with thee complain;
Will smooth thy pillow, pleat thy bow'rs;
And bind thine aching head with flow'rs.
But be this previous maxim known,
If thou canst feed on love alone :
If bleft with her, thou canst sustain
Contempt, and poverty, and pain :
If fo-then rifle all her graces-
And fruitful be your fond embraces.
Too foon, by caitiff-fpleen infpir'd,
Sage DAMON to his groves retir'd :
The path disclaim'd by fober reason ;
Retirement claims a later feason;
Ere active youth and warm defires
Have quite withdrawn their ling'ring fires.
With the warm bosom, ill agree,
Or limpid ftream, or fhady tree.
Love lurks within the rofy bow'r,
And claims the speculative hour;
Ambition finds his calm retreat,
And bids his pulfe too fiercely beat;
Ev'n social friendship duns his ear,
And cites him to the public sphere.
Does he refift their genuine force?
His temper takes fome froward courfe;
Till paffion, misdirected, fighs
For weeds, or shells, or grubs, or flies!
Far happiest he, whofe early days
Spent in the facial paths of praise,
Leave, fairly printed on his mind,
A train of virtuous deeds behind:
From this rich fund, the mem'ry draws
The lasting meed of self-applause.
Such fair ideas lend their aid
To people the fequefter'd shade.
Such are the naiads, nymphs, and fawns,
That haunt his floods, or chear his lawns,
If where his devious ramble strays,
He virtue's radiant form furveys;
She feems no longer now to wear
The rigid mien, the frown fevere
To fhew him her remote abode;
To point the rocky arduous road:
But from each flower, his fields allow,
She twines a garland for his brow.
* Alluding to-the allegory in CEBES's tablet.
O you, ye bards! whose lavish breast requires This monitory lay, the strains belong; think fome mifer vents his fapient faw, ome dull cit unfeeling of the charms t tempt profufion, fings; while friendly zeal, guard from fatal ills the tribe he loves, ires the meaneft of the mufe's train! e you I loath the groveling progeny, ofe wily arts, by creeping time matur'd, vance them high on pow'r's tyrannic throne: lord it there in gorgeous ufelefsness, d spurn successless worth that pines below! See the rich churl, amid the focial fons wine and wit, regaling! hark he joins the free jeft delighted! feems to fhew meliorated heart! he laughs! he fings! ngs of gay import, madrigals of glee,
And drunken anthems fet agape the board.
Like *DEMEA, in the play, benign and mild,
And pouring forth benevolence of foul,
Till MICIO wonders: or, in SHAKESPEAR'S line,
Obftrep❜rous filence; drowning SHALLOW's voice,
And ftartling FALSTAFF, and his mad compeers.
He owns 'tis prudence, ever and anon,
To smooth his careful brow; to let his purfe
Ope to a fix-pence's diameter !
He likes our ways; he owns the ways of wit
Are ways of pleafaunce, and deferve regard.
True, we are dainty good fociety,
But what art thou? alas! confider well,
Thou bane of focial pleasure, know thyself.
Thy fell approach, like fome invasive damp
Breath'd thro' the pores of earth from Stygian caves,
Destroys the lamp of mirth; the lamp which we
Its flamens boaft to guard, we know not how:
But at thy fight the fading flame affumes
A ghaftly blue, and in a stench expires.
True, thou seem'ft chang'd; all fainted, all ensky'd;
The trembling tears that charge thy melting eyes
Say thou art honeft; and of gentle kind,
But all is falfe! an intermitting figh
Condemns each hour, each moment giv'n to fmiles,
And deems those only loft, thou doft not lofe.
Ev'n for a demi-groat, this open'd foul,
This boon companion, this elastic breast
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